Bible Study At The English Institute

Every Wednesday and Friday we’ve been having a Bible Study at a nearby English institute. People come in and we start with a little bit of what Pastor Mike likes to call “Free Talking”. We chat, ask questions, and make conversation.

Then comes the song. We usually like to introduce a new worship or praise song (either new for us all or new to them being in English). We read through it, someone explains the song, and any difficult words or phrases (because textbooks    don’t     always      teach what creative writers put to the page), then we sing the song!

Here’s Canadian Mike excellently explaining the song. He comes up with great examples to explain obscure words and phrases for the learners! Lately, usually Iza or myself would play and lead in songing the sing. Here Iza leads in Hallelujah Jesus.

After that comes the Bible Study. Many times Pastor Mike would teach, or he’d have one of us teach, and lately we’ve tried breaking up into groups and doing smaller group Bible studies, since right now we’ve so many foreigners (English speaking natives) here to help.

Some people get introduced to us and the church via the Bible Study at this English Institute. That’s how we met people like these siblings, Jun Yong (the boy) and Ha Yong (the girl) ! These two are cool!

 

Awesome. I’ve said it before, but in South Korea, there’s a lot of people who know English or are learning English as a second language. English is big here. What’s great is that there are already a lot of people we can give the Gospel to and teach the Word of God to, even though we don’t know Korean. (Of course, that doesn’t mean we aren’t learning or needn’t learn Korean!)

We do know that some come to church or Bible studies merely to learn and practice English (we’ve heard from some by their own admission, heheh). Even though some come only for English, it is fortunate that they do listen to what we have to say, and are exposed to the Word of God, sharper than any two-edged sword, and get to hear the Gospel. While it may be beneficial that English draws people, we don’t want to compromise Christ for English. We’d like to “keep the main thing the main thing.” And that’s Jesus. So please pray for us, the church, those serving, and especially for Pastor Mike, that God may continue to grant wisdom and guidance in matters such as these. Also, please pray that God would give motivation and opportunity to learn Korean for every foreigner serving over here, in order to become even more effective when working with Koreans.

 

*Thanks, Dean, for some of your older pictures!